NY Post asks, “Why does the NY Times hate kids?”

In a scathing article, the NY Post blasts the NY Times for reviewing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows two days before its release. The article says:

The New York Times hates children.

That simple, declarative sentence is the only explanation I can summon for why the left-listing newspaper, which fancies itself the finest in the land, had the abject chutzpah yesterday to publish a “review” of the new Harry Potter book – two days before it was to be released across the globe.

But presenting its Potter piece as a “review,” as the Times and its executive editor, Bill Keller, did, is like calling the Jayson Blair and Duke lacrosse team persecution fiascoes minor “oopsies!”

The Newspaper of Record has done nothing less than perpetrate a fraud against the children of Planet Earth.

But the dreckish newspaper doesn’t give a damn about family units containing at least one person of minor persuasion, as evidenced by the reaction of book editor Rick Lyman to the brouhaha brought about by his paper’s loose pen and looser morals.

“We came across a copy of ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows’ at a store in New York City and we bought it,” he said simply.

“We took great care not to give away the ending, nor to give away significant details about who lives and who dies.”

I will not link to the NY Post article, or post the remainder of it’s content for those who wish to remain “spoiler free”.

I confess that I’m not a Potterhead. My assistant, Michael McElroy, is. At the risk of causing him great distress, but in the service of journalism, I asked him to read Kakutani’s review and tell me if it ruined the book for him. He said it did not and, in fact, made him want to read it even more. McElroy made an even more telling point: If The Times had waited until Saturday, or even Sunday, to review the book, most readers would not have been able to finish its 759 pages by then.

They would have had the choice, as they had today, of skipping the review and reading Harry at their leisure.

It goes on to state:

I think it’s important to remember that there was never a contract or an agreement between The Times and Rowling or her publisher. The publisher set the release date unilaterally as part of the brilliant marketing campaign that has propelled the entire Harry Potter phenomenon. Neither The Times nor any other newspaper had an obligation to help enforce the release date.

Not a strong enough argument in my book!

The NY Times may not hate kids as the Post story states, but they certainly love the mighty dollar even more.

4 Responses

I read the NYTimes review gingerly, as I am a Potter fan and didn’t want to spoil my enjoyment of the book. The review didn’t give anything away, and said nothing more than what we’ve already heard from Rowling and others about the book. We all know someone dies. We all know Harry matures more. And we all know this book is supposed to resolve Harry vs. Voldemort, Good vs. Evil, etc. I have not read the Post’s article, nor will I. I will be too busy reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows this weekend!

The grey lady may not be what she used to be, but you know, the Post is trash. It’s not like the NYT revealed that Jaye Davidson is a dude or Darth is Luke’s father. This article is about rubbishing their competition, not sticking up for innocent pre-pubescent youth (who should probably not be allowed to read past book 4 anyway.) I assume from your lack of a link to the Post story that they went right ahead and reprinted the Times’ spoilers, anyway.

If your enjoyment of book 7 is really rocked by knowing that (making things up here, as I don’t get the Times and have not been spoiled for any of book 7) Hermione kisses Ron, Dumbledore comes back as Gandalf the White, Neville faces down Bellatrix, little Ginny turns out to be the most powerful of them all, the Malfoys get their come-uppance, or maybe even that Harry fights — duh — Voldemort, perhaps it’s really for the best that this is the last book in the series lest your condition become chronic.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to the Wolf Road Barnes and Noble to shout some fake spoilers at a bunch of kids who are all cranky from being up way past their bedtime.